Bowles Not Interested in Cabinet Post

Former Clinton administration Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, who has spent the past two years pushing for a bipartisan deal to reduce the deficit, said he has no interest in taking a cabinet-level position if President Barack Obama is re-elected in November.

“I’m staying in North Carolina,” Mr. Bowles said in an interview. “This is home for me.”

Instead, Mr. Bowles said he plans to spend the coming weeks and months working with Democrats and Republicans to try to push both sides toward a broad budget agreement before the end of the year, even if that means irking liberals and conservatives who are working to block such a consensus, he said in an interview.

His name is often mentioned on a shortlist of possible successors to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, though Mr. Bowles has been critical of the Obama administration in the past for not working more with Republicans to reduce the deficit.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.